Year C, Transfiguration
2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2
What would
you do if you knew that you could not fail?
It’s an interesting question to ponder. There are some people who live
like that. They try anything. They have no fear. Sometimes that translates into recklessness,
sometimes not. Then there are those
people who are scared, but they do it anyways because something or someone is
supporting them, providing confidence and hope.
Jesus lived this way (as though he could not fail) and so did Paul and the
other disciples. Paul and the disciples
were not reckless, although I am sure that some people around them thought they
were. They had confidence not because of
displaced sense of self-importance but because they believed that God was in
their corner.
The section
that we heard from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians is a bit tricky. If it seemed a little confusing to you, you
are in good company. Paul was
referencing the story of Moses. When Moses
encountered God in the Old Testament, God’s glory was so bright, that Moses’
face would glow. Then he would have to veil his face because God’s glory would
actually scare people. He had to protect
people from God’s glory.
Paul was
explaining to the Corinthians that everything changed when Jesus came, because
God’s glory came to us in human form.
Even though Jesus died and his body left this earth, his glory remains,
in the people of God. We no longer have
to fear God’s glory because humans are able to take on that glory.
We do not
talk a lot about God’s glory because it seems inaccessible—just out there. However, the point that Paul was trying to
make was that it is accessible. Jesus made it accessible. If we turn to God, not only can we glimpse
God’s glory, we can become a part of it.
We can be participants in God’s glory.
Paul wrote, “And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the
Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image
from one degree to another, for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.”
If you look
at the front of our bulletin, you will see that our mission statement is “to
live in the Spirit of Christ.” To some
that might seem abstract and there is certainly room for interpretation. If we read the mission statement in light of
Paul’s words, then living in the Spirit of Christ means that we are being
transformed into God’s glorious image from one degree of glory to another. It
means that we can live without fear of failure because we have God’s Spirit. Living without fear of failure doesn’t mean
that we don’t ever fail. In fact, it
means that we will probably fail more often. It also means that we will have
more opportunities to be the people who God calls us to be, to truly embody the
glory of God.
Now I have
to admit, that I am not really good at casting off fear and living boldly. I am cautious. (I have had some variation of the same hair
style since I was in 5th grade.) But I am not the only cautious one
in our church. Christians have become
complacent over the last several hundred years.
We got comfortable in the 20th century. We became accustomed to being the
majority. We got used to sitting in
places of power. And once you have that
comfortable position, well it’s harder to take risks. We have more to lose.
The early
church was full of risk. We might say,
well it was easier because they had less to lose. While they did not have the reputation of the
established church to worry about, they certainly had a lot to lose. Paul was an important person in the Jewish
faith. He had authority. He was also a Roman citizen, which meant he
was well respected and a little more comfortable than the average Jew. He gave that all up, so that he could walk
hundreds of miles and talk to people about Jesus---so he could be beaten and
imprisoned—so he could be mocked and criticized—so he could be the greatest
evangelist who ever lived.
The first
line of our reading for today is, “Since, then, we have such hope, we act with
great boldness.” When Paul said that we
act with boldness, he was referencing not his own self confidence and valor,
but the boldness that comes with freedom.
The origin of his freedom was the Spirit of the Lord. It was the Spirit of the Lord that gave him
the freedom to live as though he had no fear, to live boldly and to never lose
heart. That Spirit of the Lord resides with all of us—gives us all the freedom
to live boldly.
So forget that question I started
with: What would you do if you knew you could not fail? The better question is: What would do if you
knew that failure was a part of our Christian journey and that failure was a
part of bold action? We don’t risk
failing so that we can achieve glory, we take risks because we already share in
God’s glory. Every time we act with boldness
in our life as Christians---we do so with the Spirit of God within us. By
acting boldly, we come closer to the people who God calls us to be.
Being bold and taking risks is not
easy. I know that. Yet I am convinced that our church needs
boldness. We need to take risks if we
want to continue transforming from one degree of glory to the other. If we are able to partake in these risks together,
then we can be there for one another when we do fail and rejoice with one
another when we succeed.
There are a lot of people out there
who will tell you that the church is dying.
I do not believe that. However,
if we continue on our current trajectory, the denominational churches won’t
last the next 100 years. That makes me sad, because I think there are a lot of
churches (St. John’s being one of them) that are worth saving. If there ever was a time to be bold in our
churches, it is now. If there ever was a
time to take risks, it is now. I believe that if we are bold in our faith and
embody the glory of God, we will survive and thrive. But if I am wrong…and the church doesn’t
survive, wouldn’t you rather go out in a blaze of glory? We have
been “fighten sin since 1610” but maybe it’s time to stop fighting against
something and start fighting for something, fighting for transformation and
God’s glory. Will you fight with me?
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